Whether you are physically in Brighton or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium. Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers’ attention to ones in the pipeline.

You can read the agenda in full, including the text of amendments, here.

We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today, the last day of this year’s event.

We will also be running a thread each day on fringes, so use that one for anything going on outside the main show.

16 Comments

Try to find time to discuss the news that Assad has bombed a UN aid convoy. Hospitals, aid convoys, enough is enough. Helping refugees is no longer enough, we need to be looking at penetrating Assad’s airspace and telling Russia their planes might be targeted.

I have been watching on the Parliament Channel , as there is very little coverage elsewhere, and everything seems so dark and even a little dismal. Do they have lights there? Just been listening to another long interview with Labour people about their shadow cabinet elections on radio 4 . No mention of the liberal Dems in Brighton. Can someone please post up contacts for the main media outlets so we can complain?

Eddie Sammon, Perhaps we also should take our government and the US to task for killing Syrian soldiers and breaking the hard won ceasefire…
Oh, I forgot; all such incidents (including repeated attacks on hospitals) are ‘Accidents’, whereas the Russians???????

Yeah, great, Eddie Sammon. Seven of my relatives lost their lives in the First World War. Pardon me if I’m not keen on people who are trying to start a third one.

I was banned from commenting on this site because of my comments on the Syria vote. Pleased with yourselves now, eh? US and British bombs killed people because of bad intelligence and our leaders have shown not the slightest remorse for what happened or the slightest understanding of the complexities of what’s going on in there. The Russians have then deliberately attacked an aid convoy to pretend it was an accident and highlight the hypocrisy of the US/British. Putin is despicable, but who gave him the opportunity to do this?

We killed a few dozen Muslims the other day because we didn’t check whether they were fighting for or against ISIS. In retaliation, Putin has killed some more Muslims. We have now stopped aid convoys which will cause the death of more Muslims. The result is lots of dead Muslims because we didn’t care about who we were bombing as long as it satisfies voters who feel the need (for someone else) to do some bombing.

Tell me how you think that more bombing will solve the situation caused by us bombing?

@Eddie Sammon,
Eddie, perhaps we should stop trying to intervene to bring about regime change in the name of liberal interventionism. Iraq, Libya, and the tragedy of Syria. And perhaps those who keep making the same mistake over and over again at the cost of so many innocent lives should hang heir head in shame that they cannot learn from their mistakes.

It is better not to create a situation where there aren’t so many desperate refugees don’t you think? I didn’t particularly want to make any further comment on this site but I get regular updates on what is happening from aid workers and I am incoherent with anger.

My strong reservations about the EU even though I eventually voted remain, were based on the inability / unwillingness, of the leaders to deal humanely with a humanitarian crisis that we are involved in. The deal with Turkey was shameful, but it seems that we do not want to be faced with the consequences of our actions, the devastation of whole societies the mass death of innocents and the desperation to escape.

I am of course, no longer a supporter of the Liberal Democrat Party. In fact I have developed a strong antipathy towards it.

Turning to transport, accepting that any changes to the railway industry structure will be disruptive (probably true) seems very timid. Let’s review if the current structure does work, or if there are better alternatives. There does seem to be an appetite for change, but let’s base any policy on evidence and consideration!

David, you mention the parliament channel , and radio 4, one of my strongest reasons for being against the BBC in its present form , but for public broadcasting very staunchly, is the example of the parliament channel of the BBC.That is public broadcasting , so much of their output , bake off a current one , no pun intended, is not.At their best they are excellent , but rarely at their best these days in many ways.

Their coverage of our party is a lousy, basing it on specifically one election result. This week is not the Labour conference , yet lots of programmes on different channels about Labour . Why , are they trying to get involved in the leadership election ?!

Do complain to the BBC, we all should ,and to other channels where appropriate, and we should see the organisation that is the public broadcaster as, alas, as it is , no different to any other , merely often interested in the status quo and ratings. If people think the EU is a monolith, count me in describing our so called auntie as one often !

Tell me, Lorenzo, which one would you prefer to run the BBC – Rupert Murdoch or Richard Desmond ? And what on earth do you have against Radio 4 ? You really do puzzle me.

I’ve just listened to a fascinating review of a new biography of Neville Chamberlain followed by the excellent PM programme and the six o’clock news complete with Big Ben – then there’s the saga of Helen Archer and domestic abuse to listen to just after seven.

On a more serious note, I’m old enough to know what comfort the BBC gave to the country in the Second World War. I’ll never forget Mum sobbing with joy and holding me when she heard about VE Day in 1945. Don’t be like the Tories and mess about with something that is part of the social fabric of our country.

PS. If you watch Sky TV I understand the going rate is about £ 45 per month….. four times more than a TV licence….. and no doubt used to subsidise the over gross earnings of such charmers as Wayne Rooney. No doubt under dear Rupert the TV licence would probably follow the same trajectory and you’d be subjected to four minutes of inane advertising every ten minutes.

09.45–10.35 F36 Constitutional amendments: Committees
10.35–10.50 F37 Standing order amendments
That was hopelessly opaque and boring switch-off stuff on BBC Parliament.
Can housekeeping matters be dealt with differently, freeing the valuable TV time for more lively debates on policy issues of real public interest?

Oh, by the way: Tim Farron’s speech was absolutely inspirational!

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